Alumni Motifs: January/February 2016

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Bart Dunning (IAA 62­-64, IAC/NMC 60-62) retired from 49 years in the Toledo Symphony (double bass), and from teaching beginning string players in the Wayne­Westland and Ann Arbor Public Schools. He and his wife, Sally Donaldson Dunning (UNIV 63-67), have moved to Maine to be closer to children and grandchildren.

Dr. Sandy Goldberg (IAA 62-­63, IAC/NMC 62­-63) has recently retired from NBC Chicago as health and nutrition contributor after 21 years. She is now focusing her energies on the expansion of A Silver Lining Foundation, which she and her husband founded 13 years ago to provide free breast health testing to uninsured and underinsured women and men at 15 partner hospitals in the greater Chicago area.

Bob Snyder (IAA 62­-63, 64­-65) wrote the chapter on Memory for Music (Chapter 11) in the newest edition of the Oxford Handbook of Music Psychology, which was due to be published this winter.

Chris French (IAC/NMC 77) was featured in an article in the Houston Chronicle, about his work as a cellist and a personal trainer. Read the article at houstonchronicle.com.

Steve Marvel (IAA 79­-80) was a finalist in the Outstanding Animation Demo Reel and Audiobook Narration ­ Mystery, Best Voiceover category at this year's Voice Arts Awards in Los Angeles. He also played the principal role of Dennis, opposite Awkward's Nikki Deloach, in You Cast a Spell on Me for the ION­TV network's "Wicked Week" in October.

Scott Landis (IAA 83-­85), a Tony­ and Drama Desk Award­winning theater producer behind such projects as the London revival of Funny Girl and the Broadway’s Twelfth Night/Richard III, starring Mark Rylance, has been named special adviser on theatrical development and production at Universal Music Group. Read the story on Variety.com.

Ana Papakhian (IAA 85-­86, IAC/NMC 85) is now the vice president of marketing and communications for the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, Calif., and the volunteer vice president of the board of Santa Barbara Strings, joining fellow IAA alumna Mary Beth Woodruff, artistic director.

Marianne Leitch Breneman (IAC/NMC 87, AS 84­-86) was named executive director of Chamber Music Raleigh in May 2014. She continues to play clarinet professionally with her chamber ensemble Conundrum while freelancing in the Southeast. She also maintains a small studio of advancing clarinet students.

Kelland Thomas (IAC/NMC 88­-89, IAC Fac 98­-00) has been named Dean of the College of Arts and Letters for Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., starting in June.

Kate Baldwin (IAC 91-­92) will lead the cast of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Directed by Lee Blakeley, the production will run from April 29-­May 22. Read more about the role at theatermania.com.

Dr. Miguel Ángel Felipe (IAA 94­-96, IAC 91-­94) was elected to serve as vice president of the National Collegiate Choral Organization for the 2016-18 term. He currently serves as director of choral activities at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

Maggie Keenan­Bolger (AS 99­-00) was named one of The Drama League's 2016 Artists in Residence. She'll be working with Honest Accomplice Theatre.

Kathleen McGookey (IAA Fac 01) published a book of prose poems, Stay, presented by Press 53 in September 2015.

A video ad created by Brody Gusar (IAA 02-­03, IAC 02), titled "Crybaby," made it all the way to the semifinals of the Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” contest. See the ad online at doritos.com.